CMOSens® - Core of Sensirion's Sensor Solutions

Sensirion sensor products guarantee outstanding performance and correspondingly high customer utility. They are all based on our innovative CMOSens® Technology, which enables the sensor component to be combined with the analog and digital signal processing circuitry on a tiny CMOS silicon chip. This is implemented in advanced semiconductor technology, using specific microsystem processing steps to produce the microsensor structures on specially developed and patented semiconductor parts. The resulting sensor chips enable precise and reliable sensing of the desired physical parameters, such as relative humidity, temperature, or mass flow. CMOSens® accordingly represents a guarantee of high precision, reliability, and functionality combined with cost effectiveness.

Combining the sensor with the signal processing circuitry ensures that the weak analog sensor signals can be amplified and digitized with high precision directly where they are generated, thereby making them resistant to interference. This provides the basis for the extremely high measurement accuracy of CMOSens® sensors. With the elimination of fault-prone solder joints, users also benefit from outstanding long-term stability, as has been proven by extensive field tests. Furthermore, CMOSens® Technology is based on proven and reliable standard processes used in semiconductor fabrication, which also contribute to the high reliability and reproducibility of Sensirion sensor solutions.

CMOSens® chips are intelligent microsensor systems with a high degree of integration and functionality. This is provided by analog and digital signal processing, which is integrated on the semiconductor chip along with the sensor component. Our chips are further enhanced by additional intelligence for self-tests, low-power operation, and built-in linearization, digitization and temperature compensation (the latter using an integrated temperature sensor). The present high level of functionality and intelligence results from many years of development work, as can be seen from the evolutionary stages leading up to the present chip generation:

1st generation: miniaturized sensor component

2nd generation: 1st generation plus amplifier and A/D converter

3rd generation: 2nd generation plus intelligence for linearization and temperature compensation

4th generation: 3rd generation plus memory to hold calibration data

As a standard semiconductor fabrication process, CMOS is optimized for reliable mass production. Sensors fabricated in CMOSens® Technology are based on this cost-optimized standard process, which assures customers of an optimal price/performance ratio. Merging the sensor components with the signal processing circuitry on a single small chip allows system costs and package sizes to be reduced even further compared with conventional sensors. As a result, users obtain extremely high reliability and quality at a lower price.

An important technical benefit for customers of Sensirion products is that our digital sensor systems are fully calibrated. This means that expensive and difficult calibration procedures no longer have to be performed by the customer. Our in-house sensor calibration and testing infrastructure allows effective testing and calibration procedures according to established quality standards. The results are high quality, fully interchangeable multi sensor modules at unbeatable price-performance ratios.